I had already noticed that campaigns promoting tourism in Korea (and in Seoul) usually featured popular Hallyu stars (비, 동방신기, 이병현, …), but I hadn’t seen this specific “interactive” kind of campaign before. It guess this creativity is due to the fact that Korea is eager to become a major tourism destination, competing with its powerful and attracting neighbours (Japan, and China).

KTO interactive campaign poster.

“Interactive” campaign, you said ?

So, how interactive is this campaign ?

The campaign consists in an approximately 24 minutes-long (basically one minute of movie equals one hour in the story, to make it 24 hours) “mini-drama” featuring some of the current top Hallyu names (singers and actors).

The story follows different characters, both in Seoul and in the Korean countryside. There’s the scenarist (played by LEE Da-Hae) with her actor boyfriend (played by U-know), who meets a young photographer (played by KIM Bum) on the train in the Korean countryside ; there’s also the two characters she is writing about – a great chef, and a fashion designer (played by PARK Si-Hoo and HAN Chae-young ) ; and there’s the idol group (BIGBANG, playing themselved) going to a entertain school children in the countryside after their school has closed.

While you watch the drama, there are times when you can click on the video, to make travel tips appear. These tips are about activities you can do while in Korea, Korean food, Korean cosmetics, music festivals, places to visit, fashion, cool places to hang out, shopping, things to do and see in the countryside…

When you click, a tag is saved, and the goal is for you to find the 24 tags in the movie. You can also create your own travel book once you have found at least 5 tags. Plus, you can create a “making-of” film featuring yourself among the 10 Korean stars featured in the campaign. And you can also download high quality wallpapers of the campaign, screensavers, …

The ultimate bonus is that you can enter a contest to win a trip to Korea, items from the stars and featured in the drama. AND, if you participate in the survey, you can win a SAMSUNG digital camera.

They didn’t lie when they said “interactive”.

HAN Chae-Young in Haru

A campaign aimed at a specific audience

I can’t help to think that this campaign is not really targetting people who have no special interest in Korea in order to make them interested, but is designed to attract people who have already been exposed to Korean entertainment and who would be more likely to be interested than people who have little knowledge about modern-day Korea.

Why do I think so ?

Well, first of all, the campaign is available in Chinese, Japanese and English languages only. And guess what ? Japanese and Chinese people represent a great part of tourists coming to Korea (as far as I know). And English-speaking people make the most part of Western people in Korea. While South-East Asian people are also potential tourists (thanks to the Hallyu), I guess they bring less money to Korea than, say, Japanese tourists. I remember seeing places in Seoul that were clearly targeted at Japanese tourists : shopkeepers could speak Japanese, there were things written in Japanese, ads featuring actors from Korean dramas that are very popular in Japan, …

Secondly, the campaign features Korean stars who can only be recognized by people who have at least some interest in Korean entertainment. For example, U-Know was a member of the extremely popular idol group DongBangShinKi – an idol group that was very popular in Japan. KIM Bum acted in a very popular drama in early 2009 – a drama that had a huge success all throughout Asia, and even became one of the first dramas broadcasted on the first Internet platform offering legal viewing of Korean dramas in the USA. And I already talked about BIGBANG on this blog – currently one of the most popular, trend-setting idol group in Korea and Japan (and famous all over Asia and beyond).

Finally, thinks like Korean cosmetics or its fashion are not really widely known all around the world (at least as far as I know, please correct me if I’m wrong), but probably already have some success in Asia (I remember reading articles about “health tourism” in Korea – another interesting subject).

PARK Si-Hoo in Haru

Interesting points about the campaign

Surprisingly, the campaign promotes both “urban” Korea, and the Korean countryside. Most young people interested in Korea probably mostly see it as an urban and modern country, and this campaign can make them aware of the hidden beauties of the whole country, not just its big cities. On the other hand, some Western people would probably see Korea through its cultural heritage, History, traditions, and the campaign can make them realize that Korea is also a modern and dynamic country.

The “drama” idea is really interesting, considering that dramas are a huge part of the Hallyu success. Again, people who are not familiar with Korean entertainment would probably not see this as a familiar point… but it sure rings a bell for any fan of K-entertainment !

Also, targetting this campaign at people who already have been in touch with something about Korea instead of people who haven’t is an interesting strategy. The KTO is not trying to “convert” new people to Korea, but is rather trying to work on its “fanbase”, by making them maybe more “addicted”, if you get what I mean…

And the interactivity of this campaign sure makes it stand out ! I don’t know much about other countries’ campaigns to promote tourism though … Got any campaign to share ?

I wonder if this campaign will make more people come and visit Korea …

Does it make you want to go there ?

BIGBANG's TOP in Haru

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All pictures used in this article are owned by the Korea Tourism Organization. They are taken from the campaign website.

A few words

This whole campaign covers quite a wide range of goals : selling World Cup goods (like T-shirts), having people take part in contests, selling the digital single, … as well as promoting Hyundai’s corporate image and a cheering spirit for the National team. This kind of mix of different worlds (big car company, music, sports, national spirit) is not seen that often in France (I think). Usually, we try to focus on only a few goals, worlds, or concepts, in order not to get lost in too many objectives. Is that a cultural difference or something else ?

In addition, this campaign has been released in a packed time, with Buddha’s anniversary in late May and elections in early in June. This means that there’s a lot of activity and advertisement going on right now in Korea. And the FIFA World Cup is a huge event for Korean people since it enables their country to be represented on the International scene (in a better way than the usual one – conflict between the two Koreas). Therefore, there’s also been many advertisement campaigns released with a “World Cup” theme. Many idol music groups, among the most popular ones, have also released special songs for the World Cup this month.

This campaign is therefore not a brand new concept, but it still stands out because of some specificities.

Whereas the teaser video and pictures and the music video are common campaign material, the 5-videos-long story, as well as the “teaching the cheering dance steps” concept are different.

Korean singers sometimes tell a story through several music-videos for their songs, therefore offering something like a musical short movie. So, the 5-videos story concept is not really alien to the Korean audience, but quite new in this case, since these videos are not music videos, and not telling a drama story. This format creates anticipation and excitement. And no other company or idol group has done so for the World Cup so far, in Korea, so this format makes the campaign stand out from the rest.

Plus, in this technology-driven society that is South-Korea, Korean netizens (people looking for any piece of news regarding their stars – they can be really scarily fast to find out things and spread the word out) were here given something to work on (try and find out new pictures, etc…, guess what the next video was going to be about, etc…). This shows that this campaigns is really adapted to its target audience.

Choosing one of the top idol bands of the country and the National ice-skating queen, all acting their own public roles, makes sure that both male and female citizen of pretty much all ages could be touched or interested by this campaign. Where idol groups’ songs mainly appeal to teenagers, Hyundai “Shouting Korea” campaign has the capacity to appeal to almost every Korean citizen, and this is also why it particularly stands out.

Finally, the campaign clearly wants to involve its audience in the process, through the cheering dance, contests, concert, etc… This is a good way to get people interested. Surely enough, young people are already learning the dance steps, and we may get to see this cheering dance in South-Africa (if so, that would be a big proof of the huge success the campaign would have had). We already witnessed in the previous 2002 and 2006 World Cups the group-oriented cheerful cheering spirit of Korean supporters, so this part of the campaign (teaching the dance steps) is not odd at all (but it would sure be in France or in the USA), and quite new also. Another thing that make this campaign stand out.

So, it seems that this campaign really stands out and is interesting to take a look at. It is also a good way to see how to communicate effectively in South-Korea in terms of marketing and communications. If you have any further comment, remark or question about this campaign, please comment in the comment section below !

In France, two stores offer to pay back big plasma or LCD TV screens if the French team wins the World Cup …. (meaning that they do not have high hopes for the French team to succeed)… It’s another context (it’s much more common for the French team to take part in the FIFA World Cup than for the South-Korean team), another culture, another spirit …

From the red-colored clothes, I first guessed that it was probably about the upcoming Soccer World Cup (I know Korean people are crazy about Soccer – especially when it comes to cheering their National team). But why is it a campaign led by Hyundai ? I saw at the end of the video that Hyundai is an official partner of the 2010 World Cup …

The “Shouting Korea” campaign

– Now, one month before the start of the World Cup in South Africa, the “Shouting Project” website has been launched here.

One video has already been revealed to the public, and four more are supposed to be revealed up to the beginning of the World Cup, as well as a music video for the cheering song (1). The whole is supposed to tell a story.

Basically, in this video, the members of BIGBANG are trying to find a good way to cheer for their National Soccer team. They decide to create a song (since they are singers), and go out to find people with loud voices to shout with them.

It seems that the campaign’s purpose is to create a “cheering spirit” in Korea, through a World Cup cheering song (nothing new, since for at least the two past World Cups, Korea star singers have released World Cup Cheering songs, and other groups are planning to do so for the 2010 one), contest to win tickets to some World Cup plays, … and it’s a good way to promote Hyundai.

Anyway, put together KIM Yuna, who is known by pretty much every Korean citizen since she is so successfull on the International scene (2), and BIGBANG, one of the most popular and respected pop-idol Korean group these days (and also famous all accross Asian countries), and you know you are facing a campaign aimed at the whole nation, and that relies on National Pride (through the success of Korean athletes, singers and companies at the International level) !!

I wonder how it will turn out … and what kind of benefits it will bring for Hyundai. We’ll see that later.

Sport marketing in Korea vs in France

What’s sure is that the World Cup is always seen as a good opportunity in Korea for making commercials, or releasing cheering songs sung by the country’s most popular singers. These days, many commercials are being released (or on their way to be) with a World Cup theme, and used to sell all kinds of products. The National spirit seems to be a good seller in Korea !

It’s interesting when we compare that to the situation in France : in France, people are only wondering about which players will be selected in the National team, and there is no national euphoria about the Soccer World Cup, and I didn’t see any ad using the World Cup theme yet (maybe I didn’t look hard enough). Why is that so ? Isn’t Soccer the #1 popular sport in France ?

I’ve seen commercials in 2002, when the French team was still the World Champion team, but not much afterwards … It seems that in France, sport only sells when our team is the winner. In Korea, sports sells as long as the country is represented on the International level (Olympic Games, Soccer World Cup, …), and even more when Koreans win.

What do you think ?

Anyway, I guess I will enjoy watching the Korean supporters during the World Cup. The 1st time I became aware of them was during the 2002 World Cup : they caught the hearts of several people around me too, for their genuine supporting spirit, euphoria and fair-play.

I guess I will cheer for the Korean team too, no matter how far or not they go, just because it’s fun and nice.

As part of our “Sémiotique” class during my first year of my Master’s Degree (2007-2008), we had to write a paper in teams, and we were free to choose any subjects we liked.

Therefore, since I was already interested in intercultural communications, I suggested this subject to my teammates. We analysed the communication strategies used by Coca-Cola in Europe, South-Korea and China. We studied particularly the communication strategies used for the launching of the new Coke Zero product (except for China).